brother

1 brother. Jude, as “brother of James,” was also therefore, humanly speaking, a brother of Jesus (see note on James 1:1; also note Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3). However, both James and Jude make no mention of their earthly relation to Jesus, instead calling themselves merely servants of Jesus Christ, not even classifying themselves as apostles (compare Jude 17; note also that “His brethren” were with the apostles in the upper room before Pentecost, but only Matthias was “numbered with the eleven apostles”—Acts 1:14,26). Perhaps the fact that they had been so slow to believe on Him (John 7:5) was a cause of life-long regret and humility.